This is what I had waiting for my kids when they got home from school last week.
Here’s the story….
It has been a crazy experience for us.
She’s doing good, she’s awesome, and we love her, (don’t get me wrong)
but the bottom line is that is just an AWKWARD phase.
She trying to decide who she is and where she fits.
She’s starting to compare herself to others and wants to be treated as older, but is having a
hard time keeping up with all of the responsibilities.
Does this make sense to anyone else?
We try to make her feel valued and loved at home, but sometimes she’s just plain
EMOTIONAL!!
Anyway, after a particular hard day and not doing well on a test (and several other little issues)
it came to me that she needed a little pick-me-up.
She didn’t need one more lecture about “being more responsible”, she needed
to know that we cared and loved her.
So while she was at school, I made up this little candy bar letter! (She LOVES candy!!)
Here’s a closer look at it.
This is what it said:
Josie, Sorry to hear about your “Sour” day at school and that you “dropped” the ball on a test.
Thank you for “Chews”ing to re-take the test. You’ll appreciate it “Now and Later”!
Thanks for being the girl you were “ment” to be! You are such a “Smartie”!
I Love You! MOM
It went over VERY well and she was VERY surprised when she came home to this instead
of another lecture!
Then I got thinking about the good choices the other kids had been making lately.
My husband and I were both gone one particular evening and I asked them all to be in bed
when we got home…and guess what???? THEY WERE!! 🙂 (Insert Happy Dance Here!)
I wanted to use a little positive reinforcement and so I made them a little love note too!
Theirs said:
YOU “ROCK”! Thanks for being so awesome last night and doing exactly what
we asked! We LOVE you! Mom and Dad
Of course, the LOVED the POP-ROCKS on it!
So, to those of you with middle school aged children, what do you do to gently encourage your child
to be themselves, feel loved, and try their best?
How cute is that?! What a cute mom you are. I just can’t wait for my kids to be in middle school. Good thing we don’t have to repeat that phase of life again ourselves! Good luck.
insert sarcasm with the middle school comment 🙂
funny, I just had one of those kind of days with my oldest (and she’s only 6!) and now that she’s asleep I just feel terrible. I feel like every time I responded to her it was with impatience 🙁 So instead of stewing over it tonight I’m going to make tomorrow my day to apologize AND show her some unexpected love — show up at school with a special lunch full of goodies and a nice note from mom 🙂
I haven’t checked this blog, in oh, forever, but I was tempted by the giveaway. 🙂 So glad I did as this is exactly what we are dealing with at our house and let’s be honest I’m ready to pull some hair out. Thanks for the reminder that love is what they need and not another lecture.